Hart Springs From Kabul
To Conquer The World

W

HILE there’s no shortage of imaginative fiction for young adults, there’s nothing quite like Echo’s Revenge: The Ultimate Game, to be published in May. Aimed at young male tweens – and anyone who is familiar with the dynamic and sometimes ruthless world of online gaming – Echo’s Revenge features a technological creature who has somehow managed to escape its digital origins and manifest itself in the real world.

The brainchild of writer Hart Getzen, the Echo’s Revenge series and website (echohunt.com) are presented under the name Sean Austin, a videogame programmer who is documenting the terror wrought by this virtual Frankenstein’s monster.

The Ultimate Game is the first novel in a trilogy, told from the point of view of young Reggie and Jeremy, two brothers who are master gamers in the world of ECHO, a heartless, renegade military creation.

But that’s not the only monster in their life – they also face the daily wrath of their mother’s alcoholic boyfriend. When life at home gets too rough, the boys decide to run away. Little do they know that the latest iteration of ECHO has escaped the game, and is targeting gamers as part of a nefarious real-life scheme. Parts II and III of the trilogy will be published in 2013 and 2014, and there are also plans to turn ECHO into an actual online combat-style role-playing game.

Getzen, who grew up on the streets of Kabul, is a veteran of action films and simulation gaming. Behind his action-packed young adult novel is a serious attempt to educate the reader into the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) frameworks that are likely to shape the world of tomorrow.

"The goal was also to get these young gamers into thinking about what goes into building and playing a game – what happens when a group of people get together to create or experience something, and imbue it with their own spirit. What are the political and interpersonal dynamics of that team enterprise?"

Forced to rely not only on their gaming skills, but their loyalty, intelligence, and ability to work together, Reggie and Jeremy find that they are more prepared to take on the dangers of the adult world than they realize.